


Loneliness

by tothelight



Category: Mirai Sentai Timeranger
Genre: Gen, Spoilers Ahoy!, ahoy I say!, one scene is after the finale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:20:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,038
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28104615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tothelight/pseuds/tothelight
Summary: Times when Sion learnt about loneliness, including one time when he made a decision.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 3
Collections: Another Toku Holiday Special (2020)





	Loneliness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Skye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skye/gifts).



It was Shirakura-sensei who first mentioned it to him, after everyone else had gone, with their flashcards and their electrical diagrams and their equations. 

She gazed at him across the testing table, and he readied himself for another complicated question. It was okay! He _liked_ complicated questions. Then he could answer them for the scientists, and they’d continue to be interested in spending time with him. She had short, glossy black hair, and always wore a labcoat and glasses, which was one way to differentiate between Sion himself, the cleaners and cooks, and the scientists. He was aware that any of them could swap clothes, of course, but it was silly to get too caught up in 1% chances. He knew that Shirakura-sensei was a scientist, and he’d never been worried that anyone else was masquerading as one when they shouldn’t. 

She was nice enough, too, and smiled at him now and then. Though that didn’t really matter. It was his job to make them happy, not the other way around! That would be silly! 

He had a good sense of the shape of each of the scientists and what to do to make them happy. The rule was that he should be obedient, and should try hard, and should answer everything to the best of his ability. But there were little personalisations here and there. Onodera-sensei liked longer eye contact than Kawazu-sensei. Ianesco-sensei spoke colloquially at times and encouraged Sion to try colloquialisms (he’d learned about slang!). Kawazu-sensei preferred longer answers if it meant that more information was given. It gave Sion a lot of satisfaction. 

She said, “Do you feel lonely?” 

Sion blinked. How should he answer this?

“I… am alone, sometimes?” 

Was that good enough? She didn’t seem to think so. Oh, no. What should he do? 

“No,” she said, then she reached over the table to lightly touch his hand. That was very strange. They didn’t touch him very often, except when they were measuring him. 

He didn’t feel scared, though. That was all she did; she didn’t do anything that hurt him (but that was only ever a side effect of the experiments, of learning more about him, anyway). So he wasn’t scared. Just confused. 

“What do you mean, Shirakura-sensei?” 

He was allowed to ask questions, to clarify. If he truly didn’t understand. If he wasn’t asking stupid questions, or asking about why this person had changed their hairstyle or about the nice smells from that person’s lunch. 

“Being lonely means that you don’t have the people around you that you want,” she said eventually. “That’s a difficult question. I apologise; asking it of you is also a difficult question. You can be lonely in a crowd, or happy by yourself.” 

“Ah, I see,” he said, though he was uncertain about it. He licked his lips, which felt a little dry. Unusual – he was adequately hydrated, and the humidity in the lab was the same as it always was. He had to give a correct answer, at least to the extent of his knowledge. He’d know if he were ‘lonely’, right? He’d know if something were missing? “Then I don’t think I am. Thank you for asking!” 

It was wonderful being part of Tomorrow Research! He often got to _sit down_ while he was working, instead of when he was eating, or reading. It felt very naughty, in a delightful kind of way! He patted his chair as he got up to find his notes about how to fix twentieth-century ‘video recorders’. 

“Sion?” 

“Yes, Tatsuya-san?”

“Is everything all right with your chair?” 

He nodded happily. “Yes, it’s not broken.”

“That’s good.” 

Tatsuya-san was often nervous around him. Sion wasn’t sure why? He figured he’d try something, so he trotted over, reached up, and patted Tatsuya-san on the shoulder.

Ohhhhhhh. Tatsuya-san relaxed, passing a hand over his face, and giving what looked like an embarrassed smile. Sion was pleased; he’d been correct, and also he was getting so much better at reading expressions like this. Understanding things made him much more useful. 

He was beginning to understand what Shirakura-san had meant, too. He felt good when everyone was awake and with him. Or when he was the only one awake, working while they slept. But he also felt good when it was just him. He didn’t feel like he needed to be around other people all the time, because he had the special people in his life that he wanted to be around now and then.

He said experimentally, “Tatsuya-san, are you ever… ever lonely?” 

Tatsuya jerked, then nodded. Just a little. 

“More so before I met you all,” he said. 

Sion hugged him then. Hugs were nice, and Tatsuya-san wasn’t backing away from physical contact with him, so it was (probably) all right. “Same here, I think!” 

“I don’t want to split up,” Yuuri-san said softly, and the four of them looked at each other. There was a hole in the middle, where Tatsuya-san should have been. But he was a thousand years ago now. He’d lived out his life and _died._ It was simple. It was immense. It was monstrous. And Sion didn’t like it at all.

“I don’t, either,” said Ayase-san. “Whatever we need to do. We’re a team, now.”

Domon nodded in grudging agreement (in spite of everything, it was still quite endearing how Domon-san and Ayase-san hated agreeing with each other) and turned to Sion. “And you, Sion?” 

“I don’t want you to worry-!” Sion said.

Domon-san shook his head, and gripped Sion’s shoulder. “Sion, it’s okay, we need to think about your feeli-“

“-But how I feel is important as well!” 

Domon-san broke into a surprised smile. “It is!” 

“I want to keep Tomorrow Research going! We can help people here, too, even if we have other jobs as well! And I’m going to work on time travel so we can see Tatsuya-san again! I’m not going to be lonely anymore and we need to make sure Tatsuya-san isn’t lonely either! And I want my own chair!”

“Your own-“ 

Yuuri-san had the most confused expression on her face, but then it turned into a smile, and she tugged them all close into a hug. 

Not lonely at all.


End file.
